ADVERTISEMENT. TH HE favorable attention which the public has conftantly fhewn to works illuftrating the hiftory, the poetry, the language, the manners, or the amusements of their ancestors, and particularly to fuch as have profeffed to give any of the remains of their lyric compofitions, has induced the Editor of the prefent volume to communicate a fmall but genuine collection of Ancient Songs and Ballads, which his attachment to the fubject had occafionally led him to form. The reader muft not expect to find, among the pieces here preserved, either the interefting fable, or the romantic wildness of a late elegant publication. But, in whatever light they may exhibit the lyric powers of our ancient Bards, they will at least have the recommendation of evident and indifputable authenticity: the fources from which they have been derived will be faithfully referred to, and are, in general, public and acceffible. The ESSAYS prefixed to the collection, and the NOTES with which it is accompanied, will be found to contain fome little information, of which every one may not be already poffeffed, and which may ferve to amufe at least if it fail to interest. A GLOSSARY is fubjoined, which the Editor regrets his inability to render more perfect. Without other affiftance, however, than what is to be fcantily gleaned from a few printed books, he thinks he has a claim to the indulgence of the more critical reader; and they who have laboured in the fame field, he is perfuaded, will be the most ready to afford it. ABBRE The indifcriminate ufe made of the two characters þ and p may to those who have not paid much attention to ancient MSS. be apt to appear improper. But it is to be observed, that although previously to the fourteenth century, the th is generally found written with the p, yet even before that period, the P had begun to be used in its place, which it afterward constantly is: this latter character being rarely in ufe for the w after the Conqueft (unless where the language or character was entirely Saxon); and being, on such occafions, frequently distinguished by a dot. The Reader is defired to make the following CORRECTIONS. Page 10. V. 115. for on read ou. 101. V. 9. and p. 102. v. 24. make the comma a period. 9. dele the femicolon. 103. V. 108. v. 8. make the femicolon a period. 118. v. 15. make the period a comma. 206. 1. 322. 1. 19. dele noble; and 1. zo. the note of interrogation. 31. aade ceafe. 11. for Cheffer read Chichefter. (i) OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH MINSTRELS. I. IT' HE Minftrels, by a learned, ingenious, and elegant writer, whom there will be frequent occafion to quote, are described to be "an order of men in the middle ages, who united the arts of poetry and mufic, and fung verfes to the harp of their own compofing; who appear to have accompanied their fongs with mimicry and action; and to have practifed fuch various means of diverting as were much admired in those rude times, and fupplied the want of more refined entertainments; whom these arts rendered extremely popular and acceptable, in this and all the neighbouring countries; where no high scene of feftivity was efteemed complete, that was not fet off with the exercise of their talents; and, where so long as the spirit of chivalry fubfifted, they were protected and careffed, because their fongs tended to do honour to the ruling paffion of the times, and to encourage and foment a martial spirit (1)." This is certainly a fine, and poffibly an unflattering defcription of a fet of men, who unquestionably exifted and flourished in France for feveral centuries, and whom feveral ingenious writers have contributed to render famous. Num (1) Percy, Effay on the Ancient English Minstrels (prefixed to Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. I.) p. xix. All the paffages diftinguished by double commas, to which there is no particular reference, will be found in the Effay. bers bers of these, no doubt, owing to the free intercourfe between this country and the continent, fo long as the Englifh monarchs retained any of their Norman territories, were conftantly flocking to their court and to the caftles of their barons, where it may be easily believed they would experience the moft favorable reception. They were ftill French, however; and it is to be remembered, that if this language were not the only, it was at least the ufual one, spoken by the English monarchs and great men for feveral centuries after the conqueft; a fact which, if not notorious, must be evident to every perfon in any degree converfant with the hiftory of thofe times. If therefor, by "Ancient English Minstrels," we are to underftand a body of our own countrymen who united the arts of poetry and mufic, and got their livelihood by finging verfes to the harp of their own compofing in their native tongue, who were well known to the Saxons, continued a diftin&t order of men for many ages after the Norman conqueft," and were hofpitably and refpectfully received at the houfes of the great, all the facts, anecdotes and other circumstances which have been collected relative to the Provençal Troubadours or Norman Minftrels, however numerous or authentic, are totally foreign to the fubject; and do not even prove the mere existence of the character fuppofed. The incidents referred by the above learned writer to the times and manners of the Anglo-Saxons, though probably nothing more than the fictions of romance (2), do (2) The ftorys of Alfred and Anlaff (Effay, p. xxv.) are evidently the fame with that of Colgrin (p. xxiv.) That the fables of Arthur were popular before Geoffrey of Monmouth published his British Hiftory, feems evident, both from Alfred of Beverley (Annales, p. 2.) and from Geoffrey himself, who fays, the actions of Arthur, and the kings who lived here before the incarnation of Chrift, were celebrated by many people in a pleasant manner, and by heart, as if they had been written. 'Thefe pleafantries were in all probability parts of fome French Romance, of which Geoffrey had got a profe translation. not |